Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Environment
Electric mobility is the definitive game-changer for the transport sector the world over, with global penetration growing at close to 75% per year.
India has its own vision for electric mobility:
- As a member of the eight-country Clean Energy Ministerial (a high-level forum to promote clean energy policies and programmes) India aims to achieve a 30% electric vehicle penetration by 2030.
- This goal is inspired not only by the promise of curtailing its crude oil dependence, but also for environmental sustainability.
Going electric for the environment:
A fossil-fueI powered mobility ecosystem, is environmentally unsustainable, due to a variety of reasons.
- Foremost are the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the form of tail-pipe exhaust.
- Internal combustion engines (ICES) are among the leading sources of air pollution across the world, and India regularly features in the list of countries which have the world’s highest rates of vehicular emissions, and correspondingly, air pollutions-related deaths.
- According to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), vehicular emission is one of the major sources of India’s urban pollution.
- By 2030, India is anticipated to have an estimated 400 million customers’ in need of mobility.
- Coal-based thermal power generation today meets 70% of India’s power needs.
- Coal is also the bane of India’s energy value chain from an environmental point of view, along with pushing out airborne emissions of poisonous chemicals like carbon dioxide, combustion of coal for thermal generation also releases sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury, all poisonous particulate matters into the air.
- According to a study, India’s coal-fired power plants are the most dangerous when it comes to their health impact.
- For one of the largest auto markets in the world, fossil-fuel-led mobility will imperil environmental sustainability.
Environmental benefits of electric vehicles:
- They have zero tail-pipe emissions, simply because they do not use an internal combustion engine (ICE).
- According to a NITI Aayog report, India can reduce 64% of the energy demand for road transport and 37% of carbon emissions by 2030, by pursuing a shared, electric and connected mobility future.
What about emissions from an electric mobility future?
- It could be argued that EVs are simply transferring the burden of fossil fuel, if instead of petrol and diesel, the source or electric power generation is coal.
- EVs still have lower GHG emission than a conventional internal combustion engine powered vehicle.
- EVs convert about 59%— 62% of the grid energy to power at the wheels. In comparison, ICE vehicles convert a fifth of petrol’s energy to drive power.
- Even with coal-powered generation powering them, EVs are still going to be more efficient (with regard to emission) than when powered by conventional fuel.
- India is fast shaping its transition to a renewable-led energy future. The nation is very much on track to meet and possibly outperform its target of GW of solar energy capacity by 2022.
How is India enabling the electric transition?
- Some measures required to bring about the mobility transition are:
- Strategies like demand and supply side-incentives
- Promotion of R&D in battery technology and management systems
- Promotion of charging infrastructures
- This transition is anticipated to provide a thrust to investments in the EV eco- system.
- The increasing public consciousness on the adverse health effects of air pollution combined with robust policy framework for EVs has translated to the emergence of a fast- growing private sector ecosystem.
- India’s e-mobility sector is also taking cues, insights, and knowledge from global counterparts, and adapting best practices to an Indian context.
- Considering both its environmental and economic benefits, the goal of 30% fleet electrification will necessitate even more collaboration of service providers across automobile, technology, energy, and allied fields.